iPhone apps leaving the affiliates in the cold?

I just visited David's blog http://www.livedealer.org/news/2010/...-app-store.htm and read about SuperCasino's new app for live roulette. It sounds great for these reasons:

• I love my iphone
• I love live roulette
• I respect SuperCasino.com and have only positive things to say about them.

All three sound good right? Well, SuperCasino has developed an iphone app that claims to be the first approved gambling related app. (I think I saw a live baccarat app a few months ago).

I think that product developement if fantastic and I give kudos (I've never used the term "kudos" before) to SuperCasino for bringing live games to even more users. They are help creating a "live casino" market that's positive for everyone, even our program.

The only issue or concern I have is that the app is available on itunes and not through affiliates. Affiliates are effectively taken out of the equation in the revenue stream. This could lead many operators to develop apps due to this reason alone.

Here's a scenario:
A player who may or may not have a cookie from an affiliate link on their PC wants to play live roulette on their iphone. They go to itunes and download the app and play.

The affiliate model no longer applies.

What do you guys think.

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A player who may or may not have a cookie from an affiliate link on their PC wants to play live roulette on their iphone. They go to itunes and download the app and play.

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Absolutely now is the time to think app development. Smart phones within the next two years will be a expandable desktop. Cookie data may become obsolete as the new internet is slowly introduced. Be nice to to find alternatives for tracking referrals other than the outdated cookie.

just a thought

greek39

I agree. The cookie model is becoming obsolete. The convergence of the desktop and hand held devices are closing in at incredible rates leaving behind the "old" cookie model.

The beauty behind the "cookie" model is that it is inexpensive. Anyone can get a domain, set up a blog and start to generate an income.

Who has the expertise to develop their own app? Not the smaller ones for sure. I can only see the larger affiliates doing this. Even if they did the "real money" operators will most likely dominate the market.

What will the next affiliate model look like then?

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Who has the expertise to develop their own app?

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Working on one as we speak. Not a cost issue rather a knowledge one, hence I am look for a optin optout mailer script. Darn confusing so far but plan on approaching open source driven cell phones for download.

The cell phone of the future has a expandable desktop. The user can choose how big they screen is up to a foot wide so far. Dam interesting IMO.

Adobe offers fairly good programs for app development. Beta testing one on my HTC android.

Busy busy but will follow up soon as it is running.

greek39

Please keep us updated on yoru progress and thoughts on how affiliates can take advantage of the app phenon.

Cheers!

I must admit I am a total noob when it comes to apps and all this stuff, but from what your indicating here it would seem the itunes purchase model is in a way threatening the affiliate model. Is this what your saying Adrian?

If so, wouldn't this only be a very small portion of the market -and a smaller niche market at that?

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Originally Posted by GFPC

I must admit I am a total noob when it comes to apps and all this stuff, but from what your indicating here it would seem the itunes purchase model is in a way threatening the affiliate model. Is this what your saying Adrian?

If so, wouldn't this only be a very small portion of the market -and a smaller niche market at that?

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Yes GFPC, that's exactly what I'm saying. You could say it's a small market now, but also look at the online music sold before and after itunes started promoting them. Itunes and products like it with hand held media are a game changer. The hand held devices are converging. The market will be small, but have exponential growth.

BlockBuster, and Even Netflix are learning this the hard way.

Pressure on the gaming companies to help integrate affiliates into this new model would be important in my opinion.

Ok Adrian - I understand more of what your saying now. Thanks for explaining it a bit more.

I for one will not be getting into any cell phone or i phone style marketing because IMHO I believe that players should and do enjoy online gaming from the comfort of their home where they can eat, drink, smoke etc from their comfortable lazy boy or pc chair. I don't think its something that is going to expand all too much and if anything it only promotes the cutting of the middle man which as you stated is the affiliate.

Note: Gambling on your cell may show a player needs help or even worse has no life.

An iphone / android / cell phone app is direct marketing - why would you expect an affiliate to get a cut? It's the same thing when casinos take out advertising space in a magazine - or place a media buy on a website.

They're paying an upfront fee for advertsing (or developing an app) and will collect profits on players delivered. Yes - they do not pay a % fee on those porfits but there are still plenty of costs incurred.

The chalenge for affilates is to be effective marketers and cost competitive overall when it comes to the bottom line.

If this Iphone app costs $50K to develop, and $2K a month to maintain and debug and only delivers a small amount of turnover - then it's affilaite no matter what the share scheme is behind the scenes.

Smart phone online gambliing MIGHT be the way of the future - but personally I feel it has years to go before it develops an interface and display that comes anywhere near the PC. Current phone screen sizes do not cut it.

So that future is still a long way away.

Surely, in this scenario, the affiliate tracking would just switch to a bonus code model? And affiliates would demand bigger bonuses for their players just to promote the brands.

In theory it could be a positive for affiliates if the players found out about this and started to actively seek out affiliates with the best codes?

for sure iphone has great potential as well as ipad ;)
the last one was sold to about 7 mln users

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Originally Posted by TheGooner

An iphone / android / cell phone app is direct marketing - why would you expect an affiliate to get a cut? It's the same thing when casinos take out advertising space in a magazine - or place a media buy on a website.

They're paying an upfront fee for advertsing (or developing an app) and will collect profits on players delivered. Yes - they do not pay a % fee on those porfits but there are still plenty of costs incurred.

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Yeah I agree with this, if the players aren't by our websites and are being found through something like iTunes then that would make iTunes the affiliate I suppose.. just a massive massive affiliate that has a much wider reach than mose people can compete with.

I've downloaded slots games for my iphone already by the brand Pokie Magic (I think that's the name) they have a lot of games that are similar in quality to the average online casino, sometimes more fun, and left me thinking it would be fun to play for real money. I could see the widespread appeal with playing slots from the comfort of the couch, or on a train ride etc

I guess if it is a regular casino that offers mobile support, and we've already referred the person as an existing player that has an account, but they download an app and start playing under the same name, then we as affiliates should still be considered responsible for their acquisition as a player and get a share of the commission. But aside from that if they sign up through a medium that has nothing to do with our referrals then I guess it is tough luck..

Interesting to keep an eye on though because it could eventually make a big difference to our commissions.

mFortune mobile casino's route around this was to develop in-browser games for the iPhone, so that an affiliate can send the iphone user through a link to the mFortune site, where the user registers and then plays online through the browser. The disadvantage in the short term is that apps can allow for more graphics / speed than browser based games, but with improvements in 3G networks and iphone browsers, I don't see this being a long term issue.

Speaking as a user, I could never imagine myself playing a slot machine on my ipod touch. Poker and card games yes, but not slots.. as most have said, the screen is just not big enough.

I have to say, I'm with Gooner here, in that I don't really see where the affiliate is being "cut out" as opposed to not being part of the equation in the first place.

Player -> ITunes / App Store -> Casino

The only place I can honestly see you fit Affiliate into that is between the Player and the App Store, which means that whichever app store they are using would need to offer an aff program. Even then, I doubt that the model would be the revenue based one we currently use. More of a Pay-per-download scenario, I would imagine.

I might have misunderstood your entire issue here (and forgetting for a second that I represent a program), I don't really get what you would expect the operators to do, other than to not offer mobile solutions through an app store.

I have no issue with it, nor should I as its their business. They can do what they want. No casino is obligated to use affiliates.

It is actually a smart move because they have just aligned themselves with one of the biggest "super-affiliates" on the planet - Apple. The most they have to pay is 30% of the app purchase price and no ongoing revenue share, and they are giving the app away for free so they pay nothing in ongoing affiliate commissions. Assuming of course that a lot of people find and download the app... which is always the million dollar question.

If they really wanted to they could have a code system where the affiliate refers the player, they enter a code inside the app and get a freebie or bonus or something which also tags the player. But if I were them I would do exactly what it looks like they are doing - try the app store first and see how successful it is before making a call on whether affiliates are necessary.

Shalk, Apple already has an affiliate program for the iTunes Store that does exactly what you suggest.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/